Adrian Loveridge – Owner of Peach & Quiet Hotel
Under the banner headline ‘BTA working on tourism plan, says Elcock’ and carried in 4th November edition of the Sunday Sun, the chairman of that organisation was quoted as saying ‘that plans are in the works to boost tourism numbers for the remainder of the year’. If the quotation is accurate, it begs the question, what on earth could you possibly do at this late stage to dramatically improve 2012 arrivals, even if ‘plans’ were already in place.
The article also mentioned that the Minister of Tourism and BTA Chairman was part of a delegation attending the WTM (World Travel Market) in London last week. The United Kingdom, despite the fall-off in visitor arrivals, is still hanging on as our single largest source market, but numbers are just part of the equation. You also have to evaluate exactly how that business is generated and it remains predominately tour operator driven.
Before moving to Barbados, I owned and ran a tour operator business in England for twelve years, so have some intimate knowledge of how they function there. Planning is done way in advance for pretty obvious reasons. Even a small aircraft like a B737 can cost US$89 million, that’s before considering all the additional costs including maintenance, crewing, fuel, airport charges etc. So its simply not feasible to have it sitting around on the tarmac.
The larger operators, own or lease their own aircraft but the smaller ones buy blocks of seats on scheduled or charter airlines. Accommodation has to be contracted with a lead time sufficient enough to market the package, either through High Street travel agents or online. So if a destination can have any meaningful impact on ensuring those committed seats and beds are filled, it has limited ways of achieving this.
Raising the profile of the destination can help, but if the more traditional ways are used, by advertising in various media options, this can be incredibly expensive, even if the national marketing agency has the funds available. Another way, is to stimulate demand by pricing, or put another way, discounting the product offering.
As late as 26th April, the Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados was predicting growth in tourism for this year. Included in the three pillars, mentioned several times, that would make this happen, were the developments at Port Ferdinand, Four Seasons and Merricks Resort. We now realise of course, that two out of three of these projects are not going to make any meaningful contribution whatsoever, at least for 2012. After a ‘lacklustre’ summer, any possible recovery seems almost totally dependent on a profitable, but short, four month winter season. Even in normal circumstances, its a huge gamble, but the situation is anything but ‘normal’, with many tourism businesses economically hanging on by their fingernails.
While, several industry players have been outspoken, citing eroded margins caused by unbudgeted increases in operational costs, their cries have largely been ignored by the policymakers. What this winter offers for many of these enterprises, is the possibility of survival, so discounting cannot be the solution. If forced to take this path, without wanting to sound too dramatic, it could be the recipe for disaster.
The predicament is though, the ‘planners’ have left it so late, that there may be no practical alternative, if you want to survive, to fight another year.
@Adrian. I agree with you.
It appears to me there is a great depression everywhere with the cost of living still rising at an unhealthy rate whilst wages are stagnant or falling.
In circumstances like these holidays are way down the list of priorities.
Here in the UK unemployment is rising and a significant number of “new” jobs are part time.
I don’t see a way out when disposable income is so severely impacted that most people are on a financial tight rope.
Even China is seeing a slow down and many of its industries are looking to manufacture in other South East Asian countries to counter rising wage costs in China.
Europe, including the UK are broke, cuts and tax rises are across the board and even if the USA can agree on a budget it’s still not going to be a solution to their underlying economic problems.
It’s not a pretty picture and no one seems to have a clue about a solution.
The same economists that got us into this mess are advising the same policies, heading us in to another bigger mess.
@Sid
Don’t forget the APD factor.
And you think that the BHTA and BTA will look at Trinidad and the other islands as serious markets?
What about the high taxes in Barbados? Are we competitive? Like the GOP we are still in denial.
Adian: It is sad, that after all the advice [some of which you gave], the university degrees, studies, and changes to the board of the BTA, we still do not have a clue about how this industry works. There are still those who believe that in the aftermath of a storm in the US, and with snowfall compounding the distress, people [in that area] will pack up and travel to Barbados for a vacation! There are those who still believe that people decide in November to take a vacation in December.
We are in deep doo-doo!
Dennis,
Sadly I have to agree with you. I have been looking at the performance of the BTA ‘ad’ agency in the US, who were appointed in January 2009 at a cost of BDS$16 million for the three years of their contract. During that
period growth out of the USA has averaged 2.9 per annually. For the same period and the same market St. Lucia averaged 5.5 per cent annually.
Perhaps the BTA are gambling everything on Rihanna’s campaign?
I know we both are passionate about tourism and its very concerning that ‘our’ policymakers just don’t understand you have know about the industry to make it work.
@Adrian
You said you managed a hotel for 12yrs in england and you have some knowledge of the market there. you have been in barbados for ions and the market forces in tourism have changed considerably. you and i know that. Over the last four to six years have you recognized that the millde income travllers have reduced incomes and hence travelling is not a priority.
No amount of marketing can incease can sunstantially increase the uptake of middle income travellers. The market that has potential for growth is that where persons have a lot of disposable income and they could be considered the high end tourist.
You are aware that a policy decision taken by the british government has impacted the tourist market in England. As i have said before hoteliers must also come up with a stratgegy to market their product. Goverment cannot do all. Despite your constant criticism of the tourist board, it must be doing somethings righ that the industry has not crumbled. The tourist industry has and continues to make substantial contibution to barbados’ development and we are quite aware of that, but tourism is not the only sub-sector that needs attention during this recessioanry times and therefore assistance must be spread across the board.
The gov of the central bank can only use what information he has to make a prediction, if he has control of all thevraibles he could say with certainty that whe words such as projected or expected is used. the great american economy has not achieved the growth that it tought that the economy would have grown by.
you keep mentioniong that st luicia has out performed barabos. you have to comapre oranges with oranges. Barbados is a mature tourist market and st lucia can be considered a growing market, thus the excitement to send people to st luicia might stimulate the tour operators to shift tourist in that direction. Futher the cost might be much lower than in barbados and aslo the commission being offered might be more than what they can receive from barbados hoteliers.
I am not saying that we should not have a development strategy, but you and the other hoteliers must reconize the state has been subsiding the hotel industry a great deal and cost is a significant factor in deciding where to go where the average tourist is concerned. the bwu has been very cooperative in wages restraint. Hotels must find ways of reducing their energy bills and must work togehter to see how they can reduce the cost of inputs into their meals.
A concerted effort is needed in solving our economic problems, no sector is more important than the other.
To the Point,
I agree with some of your comments but just to correct you on a couple of points.
I mentioned that I was a Tour Operator in the UK for 12 years and even though I have now been on Barbados for 24 years, I still follow the UK travel industry very carefully.
You mention all the subsidies from Government. In 24 years P&Q (and many others) have not received a cent from any Government. In fact we are currently partially subsidising this Government awaiting VAT refunds for over two years.
St. Lucia is only just one of our competitors within the Caribbean that is doing MUCH better than us. And many of them manage it with a annual budget of BDS$92 million and 130 staff (that of course excludes the Ministry of Tourism).
You mention that the industry has not crumbled (yet). Then do you deem the closure of 37 hotels a success?
@Adrain
I am aware that st lucia is not the only competitor, new emerging markets in our region will always be our competitors. If trinidad develop s austained toruism strategy for development it will murder us, her energy cost among other things would be a pull factor.
of the 37 hotels that closed, over what period have they closed? I know almond what poor managment, are any others have anything to do with poor managment? Or they will want to blame policy. Were they locally owned or foreign owned and how long having they been making a loss, among other things?
@To The Point:
More than a few of the closed properties suffered from poor management, lack of knowledge of [and/or appreciation for] labour laws, customs and practices, and under-pricing to attract Tour Operator business that underperformed.
Aging plant requires care and attention, and that increases operating expenses – energy cost is only part of it. In addition, some of our hotels are built with no accomodation for wind flow; so rooms are hot-boxes that may have a view, but requires air-condition units to be bearable. Old a/c’s make noise; salt-blast reduces the life-cycle of others. Kitchens located in an area where the wind blows into the kitchen, and out into the restaurant when the doors open, making the restaurant uncomfortable. Fand just circulate warm air. …. I could go on; but you get the picture.
Then [to focus on the point you raised] marketing! Very few, if any, of the managers understand that word. Any even fewer are prepared to employ those who do! And fewer will pay them what they are worth.
In short, it is easier to blame ….. anybody: [take your pick] Government; The BTA; the BWU; vagrants; taxi-men; paros …..
The following maybe of interest:
Announcement on upcoming Rihanna Barbados promotion and
Minister of Tourism, Hon. Richard Sealy gives some insight into the
strategic efforts at increasing tourism output –
http://youtu.be/vjrmDHqkXFY?t=28m38s
@Dennis
i understand everything that you have said, an i deliberately raised those points as i have a good idea of what is happening. I am tired of businessmen wanting to have the sky to make them competitive and subsidies do now force people to be compeitive. Just like some of the farmers who get so much concessions and yet the cost of food produced locally is very high.
we need to look at our managment systems to see how best they can be improved, I wonder whether guest houses built to utilise the wind flow will need to use ac all the time. when i travel, dennis i hardly use the ac, i love to open a window.
i am not saying that there might not be challenges, but hoteliers need to look inwardly for a solution first. Dennis, i go to local hotels infrequently and it is extremely expensive, Furhter we that use the hotel help them withtheir cost by paying service charge, including tips. Futher, it is only recently that hoteiiers that noticiing that there was a local market to be tapped, their policy of alienating the locals at the time when they were doing well has left a sour note in many barbadians mouth. You have worked in the area and you know what i am talking about.
we must find a solution, but it must be all hands on deck in equal partnership. As obama said, those who can carry more of the burden must and the others proportion to their ability
Oh Dear!
Oh dear squared!! Minister Sealy should tell us the age, location and spending power of these increased hits,,lmao. The BTA needs to employ Insights in their approach, Yes people are unemployed, but there are still far more employed and many are earning huuuge salaries.
The issue here is that two of our major source markets are struggling. What is the strategy to boost numbers from those markets i.e. UK and USA. How does the profile of our market (high value) impact acquisition strategies. It is not business as usual.
WHAT IS THE DAMN STRATEGY!
@David
no strategy is a strategy.
Just observing
With Almond Village unplugged what has been the compensating strategy in the UK?
@ David
I said Insights!!!
For example: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117
Enuff,
The BBC figures are just statistics – like they say, lies, damn lies and statistics.
People’s experience paints a different picture, e.g:- they don’t count those on short time or part time working whose disposable income has gone negative.
Those categories are classed as employed.
Even many people working full time are seeing hardship as the price of everything rises sharply so the value of take home pay is a downward slope on a graph.
As a result large retailers are closing down completely just the same as many smaller stores and shops.
The situation is if anything getting worse.
This evening’s news from Birmingham City Council – they have to pay out £750m pounds to women employees who had been paid much lower wages than men doing the same job over decades. The council is having to borrow the money and pay it back at £20m annually.
They say they have to cut services – anything they are not legally obliged to provide will be cut or discontinued.
One reporter said that even statutory services provision is not specific, e.g a requirement to provide a reasonable library service doesn’t stipulate what reasonable means.
@enuff
The comment was a general one Sir.
Enuff,
Thats exactly the way we should be thinking. Look at Belfast (3.7 per cent) with ZERO APD from January 2013.
In many areas there is almost negligible unemployment.
Start thinking people.
A recent report concluded the highest priority for holidays were in the 55 year plus group. Do they all listen to Rihanna?
News article here
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/917734-cuts-warning-as-councillors-face-a-757million-equal-pay-bill
@ Sid
And what do you do with statistics?
In their rightful place statistics are fine.
In the case of the job figures and the economy in general I usually politely ask the statisticians to go piss up a tall tree.
Regarding Arthur’s plans, I shouldn’t think there is much more available in Barbados to sell off.
May be the voters should invite him to perform next to a suitable tall tree – palm trees are aplenty in Barbados.
Apparently there is a 61% chance that any statistic is incorrect – including this one.
adrian
have u deliberately avoided the questions asked or it is an oversight.
@Sid
Enuff dont lilke hard facts and reality check. he and others want to potray barbados in such bad light, that they want to place all the blame on the govt shoulders, Obama has been in power for four years and hasnt he linked the current problems to george bush. owen arthur is nomagician and even his supporters are now telling him his stategy wont work.
Why do I get the feeling that the Tourism Industry is heading down the same path as the Sugar Industry did 20 years ago? Is it because many of those who deserted the sugar industry after taking much out of it, are the same ones who had pumped much of those sugar dollars into the tourism ? Is it time for another move ,Suki style?
…and what about this leakage which we discussed on a previous blog? How much forex is our tourist industry leaking or does any one care? Many of the fat cats in the industry are known to maintain properties overseas.
@ To The Point
Don’t be a goat. What led Minister Sealy to Brazil a Santeria reading? Do you even understand what I am saying?
@David
over sixteen years ago. i did a paper on tourism’s contibution to our economy and i might be speaking under fading memory buf i do think that not much of the dollar remains in barbados.
@ TO THE POINT | November 12, 2012 at 7:06 PM |
Can’t you be a bit more to the point and at least give us a ball park figure?
Sixteen years ago is just yesterday in the annals of the tourism in Bim. Didn’t you keep a copy of that paper you were hired to research and present? Let us just try to jog your memory.
Was it 25 cents in the dollar, 30 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents, 60 cents, 70 cents? How much?
David as i said my memory is hazy but i think that more than two third goes out, i would hazrd a guess and say my findings ws that 30 cents remain,
There was a number of factor for this including the fx ownership, the cost of food for the industry, the hefty sums paid to fx managers , the furniture unported for the hotels, among other things.
MILLER
u r fishing, but it was a research paper for post-graduate studies and it received an A. I know u might be surprised that I am capable doing research, but dont be fooled. Some of us here have sense dont mind we write some shoite sometimes and we dont pay attention to spelling and grammar.
I lent the paper to someone and have never seen it since
@ TO THE POINT | November 12, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Was your paper the basis of that 70:30 ratio forex leakage in the tourism sector bandied about since the1990’s? At least your report was not “stolen” or “leaked” like the CLICO or BWA (LOL!!).
It’s time for a serious update of your findings and conclusions if the tourism officials are to make ‘informed’ decisions in a more competitive modern environment.
Get back on your research DLP bike but this time with a laptop and memory stick to save tourism in Bim which has no more than 3 years to survive on its present trajectory.
A piece of guidance from your PhD candidate supervisor: One of the major signs of terminal cancer in any tourism industry is the obvious lack or sluggish movement in new investment and refusal to maintain and upgrade the plant and ancillary services.
Do you see any of these damaging signs in once King Sugar Bim?
@ Adraian Loveridge.
St. Lucia is only just one of our competitors within the Caribbean that is doing MUCH better than us
A blatant LIE.
St. Lucia’s arrivals numbers are DOWN. So is Grenada’s and nearly every destination in the region. Loveridge we read widely too.
For a man who is THE self acclaimed tourism guru on earth and Mars you must LEARN to tell the truth. Denis Johnson and YOU Loveridge are two peas in a pod could not organize a piss up in a brewey but have the BALLS to want to dictate to Barbados a country an admiring Kofi Annan said is punching WAY above its weight, that includes TOURISM gentlemen.
The challenge to Loveridge and Johnson is to merge their superhuman talents and SHOW the rest of us how it is done. Based your own words you dont need no lotta STAFF or marketing offices overseas you all dont require marketing support or money. Forge ahead put your MONEY where your mouths are. My bet per ANNUM the Johnson ,Loverdge company couldnt bring 50 tourists here on their own.
Sid Boyce you are a riot you do know Arthur is 5 foot tall his economic plans are not worth a po of short man piss.
A few weeks after I joined my last company we held a meeting in a hotel with one guy at the back shouting often “Beware of small men”, our UK director doing the presentation was the small man – He took it all with a smile.
Our meetings were a gas, to the point where one lady who had just joined the company asked “What sort of a company have I joined” and started talking about resigning. We talked round and she stayed another 23+ years before retiring.
That’s the way we treated our bosses who realised it was “friendly” banter.
@laughing
Why can’t you accept that we need to welcome all views at this time? Put your view and let us debate the issues.
The truth of the matter is that hoteliers are a spoilt bunch of children, Wayne Capaldi that lurks under the pants of Mottley and fuels Arthur’s Rum passion and Lynch’s nocturnal passion has said quite openly that the BHTA DOES NOT DO ANY MARKETING OF THEIR OWN now tell me how can it be in 2012 we can have people with good bank accounts overseas, like the same Wayne Capaldi’s, Gordon Seale’sthe O Hara’s the Ralph Taylor’s and others with houses in Portugal and London with children in elite schools and colleges in the UK but none of them want to take up a cent to market their properties but expect the Gov’t to throw money at them every month so as to finance their exclusive life styles. Bet you did not know that they grabbed every cent od the Tourism Industry Relief Funds that was $ 25 Million that was money they did not have to pay back but they never touched a red cent of the $10 Million in funds that the Gov’t provided to assist in upgrading their properties ?
It mush be an excellent business to be able to sell a product and not have to allocate one red cent to the marketing of that product that they have for sale.
When I listen to a fellow like Loveridge I am forced to wonder if he is waiting or wanting the Gov’t to transport the guest from their homes over and away and then deliver them to his resort with a $50,000.00 per guest cash contribution paid by Gov’t ?????
Stop griping stop making an ass of yourself do some work do some marketing of your property and stop spending all day surfing the web and writing utter nonsense, do some marking of your property, do you attend show such as WTM or the Carbbean Hotel show to put your place on the map or are like Capaldi reaping the benefits of the money that the Gov’t spends that you then finds ways to get into offshore bank accounts over and away ???
Is he on P & H,
Please sit down for a minute and actually read my comments and column.
You rant on about Government, but in reality successive Governments have not done ANYTHING for us (Peach and Quiet). No marketing funds, no subsidies, no TIRF monies. On the contrary we are owed over $25,000 (a lot for a small hotel in current circumstances) of UNPAID VAT for over two years.
To the Point said I havn’t answered his questions, but he hasn’t answered mine either. I fully accept that some of the 37 closed hotels were badly managed but you have all chosen to ignore one of the main factors that brought about their demise. It’s called GEMS (Hotels and Resorts Ltd).
When Sir Harold St. John owned Silver Rock Hotel, he confided in me that you could not generate enough money to pay interest and capital on monies owed on the hotel with a minimum room rate of US$118 per night.
GEMS took it over, added 40 rooms and spend BDS$40 million on the property (YES an incredible $1 million a room) and when they re-opened they charged US$80 per room per night. The systematic PREDATORY pricing practiced by GEMS over a number of years helped turn previously profitable hotels into financial disasters. Where were the BTA spending the taxpayer marketing dollars during this time, on GEMS of course.
When I sat on the BTA board, I pleaded for marketing support for our 120 small hotels and finally after 10 months, was allocated $150,000 out of a budget (then) of BDS$92 million.
Thats BDS$59 per room per annum, and I can promise you that doesn’t buy many TV commercials.
Almond received around $2 million in TIRF monies alone and what did they do, close down their largest hotel and sack 500 people.
Keeping it ‘REAL’
Doubted my St. Lucia figures, so lets see it from the CTO (maybe they got it right).
Long stay Visitors
2009 – St. Lucia down 4.1 per cent – Barbados down 9,5 per cent
2010 – St. Lucia UP 10.4 per cent – Barbados UP 4.4 per cent
2011 – St. Lucia UP 2.1 per cent – Barbados UP 4.9 per ce
Over the 3 years – St. Lucia UP 8.4 percent – Barbados UP 0.2 per cent
So it would appear that over these 3 years, St. Lucia is doing 42 times better than St. Lucia.
Lets REALLY try and keep it REAL.
@Adrian
This is part of our problem, we toss out meritocracy. EVERYTHING must be distilled to a political denominator.
David,
By the time you add this disastrous year which looks like we will down somewhere between 8 and 12 per cent (long stay visitors) how can ANYONE be happy about OUR tourism industry.
Exclude 2012 and during this current adminstration we have averaged a growth of less than one fifth of one per cent during 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Factor in average stay and spend and we have gone BACKWARDS.
Its NOT about politics, its about getting the job done and putting the people in place that can do it.
Second last post should of course state –
‘St. Lucia is doing 42 times better than Barbados’.
@ keeping it REAL | November 12, 2012 at 10:58 PM |
“@ Adraian Loveridge.
St. Lucia is only just one of our competitors within the Caribbean that is doing MUCH better than us
A blatant LIE.”
Now that Adrian has produced figures to support his position (@ Adrian Loveridge | November 13, 2012 at 5:46 AM) what do you have to say?
Are you going to apologize gracefully to Adrian or are you going to skip the light fandango and sidestep the truth?
Here is an option for you: Put the blame on the CTO and ‘rubbish’ their figures as is your wont to do as in all aspects of life in Bim that reflect what a poor bunch of managers this DLP administration is made up of.
You have rubbished Wickham polls so you can also rubbish the CTO statistics like the Governor of the Central Bank did with the BSS unemployment findings.
In fact if you include 2008, so the entire duration of the current administration, there has been absolutely NO GROWTH in long stay visitors for the entire period.
There has been an average FALL of 1.1 per cent per annum.
@miller @ tourism guru loveridge
keeping it real
Latest CTO Stayover Arrivals
Barbados Jan-Aug (2012) 377,853 -4.8
Saint Lucia Jan-Aug (2012) 215,526 -2.1
…. the point is ? What was Barbados fig. for the previous year ?
keeping it ‘REAL,
OK! Got it, you are being selective, just quoting 8 months of THIS year and you are going to ignore at least the last 4 years or 48 months. Perhaps you should wait until the end of 2012 and compare then.
Seems very balanced to me!
You mentioned that I (and Dennis) were incapable of bringing more than 50 tourists to Barbados. Perhaps, you forget the thousands we brought in for the re-DISCOVER the Caribbean Show and the thousands to stay in our small hotel and the hundreds that returned year after year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives
http://youtu.be/hYyY1aUFBoo
no land is allowed to be sold to foreigners.!!!!!!!!!!1
some blacks and i was told buy a man from there they were the thieves and criminals and Indians don’t like them here in the Maldives.
funny how all real life crime shows ;like cops,the first 48,etc all or most criminals
are black.
strange for a race that claims that whites used to be black and we all came from Africa.
@adrian
when the bta market barbados as a destination, isnt it marketing for all the hotels? When the govt builds road wouldnt all the citizens have access to the said roads? Ponder on this for a while until i get back to you about your hotel not obtaining direct help from government.
I gine out and come back.
we can lie with statisti
To the point,
Could we not argue that the taxes we generate and pay go towards those roads and even the funds to squander on projects like GEMS?
Some of the same taxes go to pay TIRF to hotels. I have known a place that is so needy for government to be everything to everyone.
These hoteliers are an amazing collection of person some of the most wealthy in our society but at the same time some that whine the most.
If we’re a gambler I would put money that the said Mr Loveridge maintains a home in good old Britain and one here.
Drunk Arthur, Sorry absolutely not true, I live in a small flat in our hotel and nor have I taken a salary for 24 years. I drive a five year old Suzuki and still work 13 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Hi Adrian,
Think what you could do on a salary of BDS $2.00 per year.
The late Steve Jobs of Apple lived a life of luxury on a salary of US $1 per year.
There must have been some hardship as the only living room furniture he had was a lamp on a stand – the carpet – perhaps he got from someone’s throw away.
@keeping it Real
Barbados Jan-Aug (2012) 377,853 -4.8
Saint Lucia Jan-Aug (2012) 215,526 -2.1
You just proved Adrian Right. St lucia doing 100% better than Barbados
@ Sid Boyce | November 13, 2012 at 5:43 PM |
Steve was a Buddhist. The Buddhist spirituality circumscribed his material existence, if you know what I mean. Something we should think about before too late. Steve wanted to leave an indelible mark on mankind not just the quest for the accumulation of material riches and ostentatious goods like Donald Trump, JP Getty et al.
As a Christian, whom you come across to be, you should be aware of the serious message contained in that axiom recorded in the book of Timothy 1 : 6:7: “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it”.
Buddhism is one thing, tax avoidance is another and I would plump for the latter as his prime motivator.
Trying to be fair is not a Christian thing, it’s common humanity which is a trait that’s missing in most of those calling themselves Christian.
Being Christian, Buddhist, Moslem is solely a matter of outside influence. Like a virus it’s passed on and every day we see the effects of the most virolous strains praying on humanity in most parts of the world.
I think of the Middle East – The Crusades so loudly praised, achieved nothing. The number of converts through force of arms were minimal and now we have the same 2 blocks that thinly vale their hate for one another.
The 1973 war achieved sky high hikes in the price of oil and the latest wars just about bankrupted the participants.
Lots of blood shed for no gain – some dying for their god and some killing for their other god.
@Anthony | November 13, 2012 at 6:25 PM |
“You just proved Adrian Right. St lucia doing 100% better than Barbados”
I don’t think “Keeping it Real” can get his or her head around that one!
That’s too straightforward for the sycophant to figure out, for real!
@Adrian
Firstly you need to let ud know what is our speding per tourist fro long stay visitors for St. Lucia asnd Barbados.
What is our average return on investment in the hotel industry for Barbados and st lucia.
Such information will allow us to determine whether we are obtaining ther tourist that are speniding money as apposed to st lucia which migh be attracting the back pack traveller which harly have money to spend.
How much top notch hotels barbados has as apposed to st lucia. Also what is our average occupancy rate for the small hotels and the luxury hotels.
As you are quite aware, when you putting your point to discredit the BTA, we would need such information, or in sa word, you should not only compare numbers, but you should aslo look at return on investement in the two countries, the debt ratio,
I now wan to retun to the idea of marketing, The Barbados Tourism Authority markets the hotel inustry , that is it tells the world to come and see Barbados. By doing this it creates awareness. It is now therefore up the hotels to capitalise on thtis awareness to pull tourists to their respective hotels. Therefore, hotels must develop their marketing stragey emphasising the uniqueness of their hotel. By doing so, hoteliers are telling people why they should visit their proerty as apposed to others.
As regards Gems, Miller and Onions can speak to that. We all know that was a calossal waste of taxpayers money and yet Arthur and others are touted as this great economist.
Mr. Loveridge do you believe that those who are responsible for marketing our industry are clueless. Most of them have been around for ions so they should know our porducts,
Hoteliers want too much hand outs. I could we call when the governemnt gave concessions to the agricultural sector whereby farmers were enitled to duty free vehilces, persons who masquerade of farmers bought the vehicles and harly use them for farming. They are peopke in the hotel industry who masquerade as hoteliers looking for handouts. You said that your hotel has never benfitted from concessions, I am aware that hotels are allowed duty free concessions when consturcting or upgrading a hotel, if you have not benefitted you have neither built your hotel or have you upgrated it.
As regards you VAT moeny is there a dispute and if the answer is in the affirmative, what is the nature of the dispute, If is unfortunate if you claim is legitimate, bute there are people who owe govt subsantial sums and I think those persons should be locked up, And Mjller and Onions, the massive amount accumulated under your party/
keeping it REAL | November 12, 2012 at 10:58 PM |
@ Adraian Loveridge.
St. Lucia is only just one of our competitors within the Caribbean that is doing MUCH better than us
@keeping it REAL
A blatant LIE.
St. Lucia’s arrivals numbers are DOWN. So is Grenada’s and nearly every destination in the region
Barbados Jan-Aug (2012) 377,853 -4.8
Saint Lucia Jan-Aug (2012) 215,526 -2.1
@ Anthony and miller where Loverigde prove keeping it Real wrong? KIR posited St. Lucia arrivals were down and post figures to corroborate the assertion.
What is up in St. Lucia it seems is the murder of residents and tourists at last count near a shocking 40 homicides for the year.
@Gems
Pleas read Mr. Adrian statment again what does it state. Does it state they St lucia number are up from last year ? It does state they doing better than us.
Let go to keeping it real figure.
YoY percentage are at the end of the figure, thats . -4.8% for barbados and -2.1% St lucia. Guess what haveing a number closer to zero for negative growth is better.
St. Lucia Decline in tourist number is 100% better than ours. ie they doing better than us
QED
anthony and adrian
earnings are more significant than numbers, what are the receipts from tourism over the years for both countries.
SLU Recipts so far for this year 596 2011 615 2012 for ECCB
Barbados travel recipts are 1,467.1 2011 1,430.1 2012 CBB
Barbados real gdp number are 97.7 2011 94.1 2012 CBB
These of course are based on different currency and different methodalgy of calculating so direct companrison is hard best.
Give what is avaliable Tourist are spending more in SLU than last year since number are down. . Tourist are spending at or little below last year levels.
Is your information for long stay visitors? Anthony, u should know better than that, show the earings for the three years aginst the number of tourists. Since you have chosen to answer for Adian, address the issues which I raised about occupancy level, among other things.
Announcement on upcoming Rihanna Barbados promotion – http://youtu.be/vjrmDHqkXFY?t=30m45s
Minister of Tourism, Hon. Richard Sealy gives some insight into the strategic efforts at increasing tourism output – http://youtu.be/vjrmDHqkXFY?t=28m38s
Some encouraging news from Hon Richard Sealy. It seems that work is being done but things have changed and we have to find new ways to fight for our piece of the pie.
To the point,
Yes! you are absolutely right that the BTA should KNOW the product. How many BTA employees or management do you think have visited our multi-award winning hotel?
I cannot recall a single CEO/President over the last 24 years that has, and can count on one hand the number of BTA employees out of more than 130 of them.
Look at the number of new hotels St. Lucia has added over the last 20 years and look at the number we have lost.
You talk about ‘duty free concessions’ but the hoops and hurdles our 120 small hotels have to go through to obtain them often deters this happening.
A large hotel can bring in a container full of what they need. We can’t do that, so often we pay the going local rate. You also single out tourism, whereas all the major sectors get some sort of concessions.
@ Harry callihan | November 13, 2012 at 11:04 AM |
Please, Harry, do something useful and stop badgering the blacks that are supposed to be managing this once ‘fair’ country. You already know these blacks can’t do anything for themselves unless directed by persons of a different hue.
So Harry, take your camcorder around Barbados especially Bridgetown and do some naming and shaming like you did in that vid about the luxury cars at the airport where we saw Bajans having champagne taste and living off other people’s money.
You can start with lower Bay Street where there a large heap of garbage slipping into the road very near to the old Harry’s Nitery that you used to frequent in the good ole days looking for some Nubian nookie.
Massa Harry that heap of garbage has been there for over 3 weeks now and has become not only an eyesore right in the heart of World Heritage Bridgetown but also a major health hazard. And while you are at it, take a visit to the hospital outside the A&E near the visitor’s car park and you will see the amount of filth and garbage strewn about the place befitting our major health institution. If the Hospital Sambo management can’t even ensure basic preventative health like keeping the surroundings clean how can they ever deal with a major public health outbreak like cholera?
They would listen to you and do, Buckra Harry, but not to no nigger in a woodpile.
@ to the point
The information is based on all recipts ie short or long stays.
Slu Number Year, Total Tourist, Spending
2009 2010 2011
1,014,761 1,026,343 994,961
799.73 833.84 865.51
Barbados tourist + Real GDP
1,153,776 1196927 1,177,568
127 131.4 131.2
@ TO THE POINT | November 14, 2012 at 8:48 AM |
What really is the point or crux of your argument?
Are you contending that, pound for pound, Barbados is doing much better than St. Lucia, tourism wise?
What really are you getting at?
Please continue posting HERE.